Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces

From the Chronicle Herald:

FAMOUS CANADIAN women abound. But while many people know the names Roberta Bondar, Alexa McDonough and Hayley Wickenheiser, fewer probably recognize Eliza M. Jones, Elizabeth Smellie and Kathleen Parlow.

The leader in agriculture, first female colonel in the Canadian Army and world-renowned violinist are three of the women featured in Merna Forster’s 100 More Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces (Dundurn, $24.99).

The followup to her first collection in 2004 features women from across the country who are noteworthy for reasons that vary from scientific discoveries, the arts and sports to prospecting at a time when women weren’t known for looking for the lucky strike.

Forster says that when she launched the first collection she already had plenty of names of potential profiles for the second book. But while promoting it, people would send dozens of potential names and see her at speaking engagements to share suggestions. Other names came from her travels and her work as a naturalist with Parks Canada.

By the time she was ready to start working on the second book, she had plenty of potential subjects but wanted to make sure she included a wide variety of women from different areas of the country, time periods, ethnic origins and types of achievement.

Canada's Bomb Girls

From the Toronto Sun:

This hardly is explosive news, but Meg Tilly didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about where bombs were made before she was cast in Bomb Girls.

“I didn’t even know there were bomb factories, I just thought they magically appeared,” said Tilly, referring to the World War II era in which Bomb Girls is set.

“And I wasn’t aware of how many people I know whose parents, or aunts, or grandparents worked in them.”

In Canada the dangerous art of making of bombs fell largely to women, with so many men fighting overseas. The personal and professional politics of this together-by-necessity work environment is at the heart of Bomb Girls, a six-part Canadian mini-series that debuts Wednesday, Jan. 4 on Global.

Timeline of Women In History

From the Vancouver Sun:

1639: The Ursuline Nuns establish a school for girls in Quebec.

1663: 775 French orphan girls and young women are sent to New France under the banner "Filles du Roi" to marry settlers.

1737: Marguerite d'Youville founds the Grey Nuns order in Montreal.

1783: Mohawk Molly Brant was given a house in (now) Kingston, Ontario and pension by the British government for service and loyalty to the Crown during the American Revolution.

Read more: Vancouver Sun